Automating the Sales Process with CPQ Software Integration
Sector: Digital Commerce
Author: Nisarg Mehta
Date Published: 08/05/2024
A study from HubSpot suggests that Sales teams only spend 32% of their time on closing new business, and most of their time is spent in generation proposals, quotations and other sales follow ups. Sales quotations, when done manually, are a lengthy and tedious process and often prone to human errors. This in turn results in longer sales cycles , missed opportunities and dissatisfied customers. There is a need for a fast, accurate and efficient quoting process. This is where Configure Price Quote(CPQ) software becomes an essential offering.
What is CPQ?
CPQ software stands for configure price quote software and is essentially a tool that assists organizations in configuring concrete products, determining a proper price based on the characteristics, and providing clients with as precise a quote as possible. CPQ software has a feature that automates quotations, which makes it easier and faster to carry out the process.
Components: – CONFIGURE, PRICE, and QUOTE.
- Configure: This component enables the sales teams to tailor products according to the needs of the buyers. It guarantees that all product variant combinations are feasible and conform to company constraints.
- Price: It is an application software that helps to price products based on different types of pricing strategies, Discounts, and customer-specific pricing. This also assists in ensuring correct and uniform pricing without any need for calculations to be done by hand.
- Quote: The last one produces quotes according to the defined products and derived prices. It helps ensure that quotes are accurate, well-written, and sent to clients promptly.
The need for CPQ software integration arises from current sales challenges, where manual data entry leads to inaccuracies and delays in response times, ultimately causing lost opportunities and dissatisfied customers the need for Automating sales process and need for custom pricing on B2B make CPQ the most relevant choice for customers.
CPQ Integration
CPQ softwares seamlessly integrates with ERP systems & CRM ensuring smooth data transfer and providing a holistic view of customer data, product offerings , prices and sales quotes. It automates workflows from product configuration to quote generation, automatically adjusting prices based on specific rules and reducing the time needed for accurate quoting. Additionally, CPQ maintains real-time data synchronization across integrated systems, ensuring that all teams work with the most up-to-date information, minimizing errors, and enhancing overall sales efficiency.
Some of the Functions CPQ perform are as following:
- Workflow-Based Quotation Generation: CPQ automates quotation creation through predefined workflows, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
- Selection & Configuration of the Components & Products: It enables precise selection and customization of components and products to meet specific customer needs.
- Pricing Taking into Account Customer-Specific Discounts: CPQ calculates pricing dynamically, incorporating customer-specific discounts and pricing agreements.
- Options for Up- & Cross-Selling Offers: It identifies and suggests relevant up-sell and cross-sell opportunities to enhance sales potential.
- Collaboration Functions, for Example, for Internal Release of Offers: CPQ facilitates collaboration by allowing multiple stakeholders to review and approve quotes internally.
- Preparation & Negotiation of Offers: It streamlines the preparation and negotiation process, making it easier to finalize and adjust offers as needed.
According to Salesforce data, properly implemented CPQ can reduce approval times by up to 95%. This allows sales teams to spend more time selling and less time worrying about other sales processes.
BigCommerce, a leading B2B eCommerce platform, recommends PandaDoc, Oracle CPQ, Quoter, and Quotewerks as the top CPQ software solutions available. These tools can seamlessly integrate with your existing eCommerce tech stack.
Ending Note
With the increased adoption of eCommerce as a preferred mode of purchasing in B2B industries, the CPQ system becomes critical. It enables sales departments to provide fast and relevant answers to customers, recognize potential cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and guarantee the correct order fulfillment. Finally, the integration of CPQ tools leads to increases in revenue, customer satisfaction, and a competitive advantage in the B2B marketplace.
If you’re on the hunt for a CPQ system and want to integrate that into your eCommerce store, feel free to reach out to our eCommerce experts who will integrate the software for you seamlessly and without any downtime.
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